I’m at the airport witnessing the best of humanity. Or at least the funniest. 

“Yes! Give it to him! That’s it! Yes!”

Not the screams I expected to hear in the bathroom. From a lady sitting by herself. Grunting. In the stall. 

Wow. 

I can’t speak to this lady’s intelligence, but I can speak to my own. I’m pretty smart. College degree. 20 years in business. (Not that either of those guarantee intelligence.)

Many successes. Many skills. And I do dumb stuff. 

You have to learn to laugh at yourself. 

I recently met a talented, award-winning photographer at a photoshoot. He chose the most lovely, hidden place for this shoot.

“Action! Look up! Laugh! Smile!”

He yelled, but the subject was having trouble hearing his directions. 

He turns to me and asks if I can help. Of course, I will. 

“Laugh,” he says.

Instead of yelling at the model to laugh for the next shot, I threw my head back and let out a maniacal laugh that would make Dr. Evil wet his grey zoot suit. 

Oh yes, I did. 

He graciously kept shooting. Kindly leaving me to process this moment. 

Why would I tell you this? 

Smart people do dumb things. I will mess up. You will mess up. 

I fight the urge to revisit the offense and analyze it. Too late to fix it, so I just churn. 

That wastes time and energy. 

Laugh. Learn from it. Let it pass. 

Dear Mr. Famous Kind Photographer, I apologize and thank you for how sweetly you handled my synapse misfire. 

And to you out there. Who have made a mistake. 

You who said something awkward to a client about their toupee. Who hit reply instead of forward for your rant about that co-worker. Who got choked and spit your coffee all over the conference room table. 

You’re going to be ok.